Bridging income disparity through employee-owned business structures

Since January, there has been a resurgence of civic participation; citizens worried about everything from health care to the integrity of our democracy. While the worries are vast, a common thread persists: the struggle to get ahead has never seemed harder, as many people are working harder for less despite overall economic growth.

After the Great Recession, when recovery came slowly, the economy grew, but incomes for the middle stagnated while executives and shareholders benefited disproportionately. It’s past time we address this growing divide that only gets wider day by day. In the 1970s, 10 percent of all U.S. income went to the top 1 percent, but today it is 20 percent of all income.

That is why I partnered with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-V.T.) to expand employee-owned business options. Together we drafted the Worker Ownership, Readiness, and Knowledge (WORK) Act which promotes employee-owned business structures. These models allow workers to gain financially, sharing in the prosperity along with companies and top-executives.

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Becoming Employee Owned is an initiative of the Democracy at Work Institute.

Our mission is to expand the worker cooperative model to reach communities most directly affected by social and economic inequality, specifically people of color, recent immigrants, and low-­wage workforces. We are a movement-based think-and-do tank supporting worker cooperatives to grow to a scale that creates meaningful change in the economy.